Busted blood vessels in the eyes.

I am in no way an advanced snorkeler, but I'm not a newbie either.

I do a little shallow water snorkeling pretty much every summer.

My wife and I are going on a vacation in May, and I'd like to know how to prevent the same mistake I made a few years ago on our Honeymoon.

I saw an old (small) anchor in pretty deep water that I wanted to bring up.

The deeper I went, the more intense the pressure got smashing my mask into my face.

I know, I know! That was an ovbious sign that I wasn't doing something right, but I had a goal in mind and it was hard to turn back. (I don't claim to be the brightest bulb in the box.)

Anyhow, I ended up looking like a demon possesed character from some low-budget sci-fi show.

What I am hoping to learn is what I did wrong, and what I need to do to prevent this from happening again.

Thanks.

Mo

Easy to fix. When you feel the pressure building on your mask like that, just lightly exhale through your nose into the mask. The extra air going from your nose into the mask will equalize the mask against the pressure from the deeper water. Try practicing in a pool before your next snorkel trip if you get a chance.

I'm a little surprised you got mask squeeze while snorkeling. You must have been diving pretty deep (15+ feet at least) to get a look at that anchor.

~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~|~

You can go to my homepage to see all my cruise pictures.

Changinlat's Homepage

Check out my review of our four days aboard Celebration!

Celebration Review

Check out my Review of our 7 day trip through the Western Caribbean on Carnival Triumph.

Triumph Review

March to the Beat of a Steel Drum!

Until the Wrap Around Balcony on the Rhapsody 5/16/04!!

NCL Skyward 6/85

Costa Riviera 6/89

RCCL Song of Norway 6/90

RCCL Monarch OTS 6/29/97

Carnival Fascination 6/5/99

RCCL Adventure OTS 5/19/02

Carnival Triumph 6/14/03

Carnival Celebration 9/18/03

Exactly!

If you can feel your mask squeezing, you can start getting red-eye.

Wendy

I did that, But the water pressure just pushed the air right out of my mask. When I surfaced, the mask was suctioned to my face so strong that I had burst capilaries throughout any skin that was within the mask.

Would that mean it was just a crappy mask (or a bad fit)?

And yes, it was pretty deep. A guy at one of the dive shops said it was about 50-60 feet, but that seems a bit far fetched.

I've always had a large lung capacity, but that doesn't seem any where near possible.

Mo

Loosen your mask up at bit. If your mask is tightened down on your face then no amount of blowing out your nose will relieve the pressure. If your mask is tightened on too tight, at 15 feet depth the water pressure will squeeze your mask onto your face so hard that your eyeballs might start rubbing against the lense

The mask problem is a result of not clearing it properly. Tha is when you get down to the depth you are going to dive, put some pressure on the top of the mask, slightly lift up on bottom and exhale thru your nose. Then let the mask settle back into place. The pressure should then be equal, thus avoiding burst cappillaries

J&P

http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;11;22;17;30;00&timezone=GMT-0500' alt='countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=800080&cdt=2004;11;22;17;30;00&timezone=GMT-0500'>

No further suggestions. I'm just surprised with that much pressure that your ears were not in a lot of pain.

1/1990 - RCCL Song of America

4/13/2003 - Carnival Inspiration

10/30/2004 - Maasdam

Till sailing on the Maasdam